California Educator

May 2013

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UTLA member
"Mama G"
retires at 95
Rose Gilbert in front of her
"wall of fame."
BY SHERRY POSNICK-GOODWIN
PHOTO BY SCOTT BUSCHMAN
Rose Gilbert outlasted 14 principals. She's given away millions to public
education. She inspired generations of students and taught for 63 years. And now, she
will enjoy her retirement, her grandchildren
and great-grandchildren.
Gilbert, or "Mama G" as she is known
to students at Palisades Charter High
School, retired in February. Her students
were devastated.
"They said, 'No, no, no! Don't you love us
anymore?'" chuckles Gilbert. "I told them
I had to do something new, otherwise I'd be
too old. I want to retire when I'm alert and
on two feet."
The beginning of a legend
Gilbert put herself through UCLA working
as a secretary. After graduation, she signed
up with the UCLA employment agency and
was hired as a temp at MGM because she
spoke Spanish and knew shorthand.
She assisted the agent in charge of contracts with studio stars. When that person
quit, Gilbert took over, working with Liz
Taylor, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Greta
Garbo, Mickey Rooney and Lana Turner.
Taylor and Garland were sensitive and some32
California Educator May 2013
times came to her in tears when they had
problems. Garbo was difﬁcult.
"They were people, like anyone else."
When Gilbert became pregnant with the
ﬁrst of her three children, she quit MGM and
became an English teacher in 1949. On her
ﬁrst day as a student teacher at University
High School in Los Angeles, the teacher next
door had a heart attack and died.
"The principal came to me and said I had
to take over," she recalls. "I've been teaching
ever since."
When Mama G began her teaching career,
schools were still segregated, the Berlin wall
wasn't built, President Truman was just creating NATO, and color television had not yet
entered the homes of Americans, notes
a Hufﬁngton Post story.
Then and now
In the 1950s, girls' skirts were below the
knees and boys had short hair.
"Now kids wear shorts to school, and
there's no hair policy," she muses. "Girls
practically wear bikinis to school and pajamas. Things have changed."
In the 1960s there was turmoil on
campus, and students protested.
"There was a student walkout over
the Vietnam War, and another over
whether students could have long
hair. The teachers supported the
kids. Now kids are apathetic. They
don't care much about anything
besides themselves. They are the
Entitled Generation."
Education became driven by
standardized tests, but Gilbert didn't
change her teaching style much. She
donned colorful costumes
and used props in class
to make learning fun,
once wearing a "Freudian
slip" when students wrote
a paper on Freud. She
continued to be creative
and teach her class like
a college course, so her
students would learn how
to be critical thinkers.
"I'm going to miss all
that," she says.